by TR Cameron
He’d figured they wouldn’t reach the bridge without encountering a tougher foe, and that belief was confirmed when four grenades banked off the hallway walls, landed among them, and exploded in a cacophony of light and sound.
Chapter Twenty-Six
They’d been fairly confident going into the missions that the ship’s defenders wouldn’t have incendiary munitions, or at least wouldn’t use them except as a last resort. The likelihood of catastrophic unintended consequences was simply too high. Their suits compensated for the flash-bangs automatically since the immediate detection of danger dimmed their visors and muted their audio pickups. Thus, when the squad of enemies appeared in front of them anticipating that they’d be reeling from the initial attack, they were ready for them instead.
What they weren’t ready for was the advanced weaponry the defenders carried. The first one raised something that looked like a flamethrower, but it discharged a liquid stream that turned out to be nitrogen, based on its effects. Lyton went down as his frost-covered suit seized up and shorted out under the attack. The other enemy in the front rank carried a weapon with a similar structure, but instead of launching a liquid, it emitted a cone of forked electricity that reached out to envelop Sparks. For a moment, it seemed as if the absorption built into the armor would be adequate to defeat the incoming damage, but then he started to jerk and twitch, and a scream of pain came over the comm before he fell beside his squadmate.
The team from the Academy made noises of surprise and alarm, while the Special Forces soldiers simply acted. Weapons fire went in the other direction to be absorbed or deflected by their enemies’ armor, which was also of a higher quality than they’d anticipated the defenders would have. Stupid Intelligence Division bastards. Of course they have researchers working on weapons and armor.
Athena replied, “Less complaining, more shooting.”
Jax nodded, grabbed an incendiary grenade, and loaded it into his launcher. It arced over his allies’ heads and landed amongst his enemies. It exploded and coated their armor in flaming adhesive gel, and one of the four fell to the floor. The front two fired again, but the element of surprise was no longer on their side.
The electricity reached out toward O’Leary, who threw herself backward to avoid it and only caught a glancing blow as she landed on her back. Her absorption circuits blew with a loud snap, and he knew she wouldn’t be able to take another one. His grenade must have impacted the freeze gun wielder’s aim because his shot went into the ceiling. The third one still standing fired for the first time, and the two Special Forces soldiers in front of him fell to their knees, retching.
Athena said, “Ultra low-frequency sonic weapon, causes nausea. Seems to be conical or short-range, or it would’ve reached us, too.” His helmet squealed as she made an adjustment. “That should compensate. Copying the change to the others.”
Good work. He ran forward past the prone Special Forces soldiers while yanking out his baton and a pistol as he let the rifle fall on its strap across his chest. He reached the front two, who were struggling to bring their weapons around to fire at him, and slashed the baton in his left hand to smash down on the freeze gun. It knocked the weapon out of his opponent’s grip, and Jax released the baton, turned, lifted the arm of the one with the electrical rifle, and shoved his pistol up into the joint where the limb connected to the defender’s torso.
He pulled the trigger, and the round exploded immediately upon leaving the barrel. It separated the man’s arm from his body and destroyed the pistol, the gauntlet of Jax’s suit, and the skin of the hand that had gripped it. His suit sealed at the wrist, keeping his internal air where it belonged, and he stared down at the metal fingers now showing where what had looked like a human hand had been. The one with the sonic weapon raised it and fired, the smug smile on his face arrogant and dismissive. It transformed into a frown when the shot had no effect. Jax balled his metal hand into a fist, flowed forward, and punched it through the transparent visor of the man’s helmet, flattening his nose and knocking him onto his back.
He kicked the weapons aside, slammed the one who had fired the freeze gun into the wall until he dropped to the floor, and headed back to check on his fallen allies. Other team members moved forward to deal with the neutered defenders. Despite several attempts to reboot it, they were unable to get Lyton’s armor functioning again. Athena marked a nearby storage compartment, and they carried him in and helped him out of the gear. He was dazed but not visibly injured. Jax said, “Marshall, you’re going to stay with him. Anyone comes through that door without clearing it with you first, they go down.”
The man looked like he might complain but nodded instead. “Got it.”
“Good.” They got Sparks moving again, although like O’Leary, his suit’s ability to deal with electrical damage was fatally compromised. They headed forward again.
Verrand asked, “Are they able to track us?”
He replied, “They certainly know they’ve lost contact with the ones we took out. But unless the ship powers up, they shouldn’t have access to sensors or anything.”
At that moment, as if he’d made it happen by calling attention to it, the ship’s lights came back on. Sirenno observed, more calmly than Jax would’ve expected, “That’s probably not good.”
Kimmel replied, “I’m on it. Outer layer access already. The codes we have are partially effective, and I should be able to get in soon. In the meantime though, you might want to go faster.”
O’Leary remarked, “Can’t see a reason to argue with the man. Let’s move it. Strings, you’re point. Then me, then Books, then the rest. Go.” Sparks stepped in line in front of him, and Jax prepared himself to push the soldier out of the way if any electrical attack occurred. Athena, do you have any access to their systems?
She replied, “They have a wireless network, and I’m working on it now.”
Anything I can do to help?
“Get to the bridge and get this thing shut down before me being in the system is necessary.”
He chuckled. Way to put the responsibility on me. Thanks.
They ran into another squad of enemies, these fortunately equipped with ordinary weapons. Sirenno went down with a wound to the chest during the exchange of fire, and Sparks took an energy blast that again shorted out his suit and dropped him to the deck. They left that duo behind, as Sirenno was still able to hold a rifle and defend his comrade, and advanced as quickly as they could move.
They heard the buzzing sound and sensed the electrical signal on their scanners before the pair of flying sentries whirred into the hallway. Their first attack was still too fast to counter, and everyone dropped prone as projectiles and energy blasts flew over their heads. They fired back at the devices, which deployed metal shields with small holes for their weapons to fire through, and returned the attack. The projectiles struck them this time, but they weren’t designed to defeat the kind of armor Special Forces troops wore. A cry of pain came from behind Jax, but he didn’t allow it to distract him. They returned fire and again failed to get through the shields. He was reaching for a grenade when, suddenly, the drones stopped attacking and simply hovered.
Kimmel said, “I don’t know how long I can hold them.” The members of the teams who were still capable ran forward and physically battered them to the deck with batons and the butts of the rifles. They added an electrical blast to the innards of each to make sure they wouldn’t reactivate, then hustled ahead, finding no more defenders separating them from their objective.
They burst onto the bridge, which held only the ship’s captain, the pilot, and a very scared-looking, tall, thin, mousy man. Jax smiled. “Hello, Quentin. Good to see you again.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Fortunately, the Intelligence Division ship was equipped with a stellar medical facility, and they were able to take care of all the team’s injuries easily. They used a cocktail of drugs Athena recommended to render the crew unconscious after strapping them into their bunks, e
nsuring that they wouldn’t be able to send out any word of warning. Cia confirmed their jamming had proven adequate to block any signals and declared she’d be coming over to the ship momentarily.
Jax connected a channel solely to her and said, “No, you’re not. We’ve been over this.”
Cia growled, “No, you shared your opinion on the matter. I never agreed to a single thing.”
He shook his head although she couldn’t see it. “Look, the Grace is our backup plan. It’s our only backup plan. It’s entirely possible that if we need you, the ship will need a pilot while someone else fires weapons. You know that you’re better than Trianna at both. I need you there. I need to be able to depend upon that backup plan.”
“That’s so low, jerkwad.”
He replied, “It’s true, flygirl. There’s nothing I’d like more than to have you by my side while I go into ridiculous levels of danger, but I’m relying on you to rescue me if it all goes wrong.”
“If it does, and you die because I wasn’t right there to help you, I’m going to bring you back to life and kill you again.”
He laughed. “I look forward to it.”
Athena replied in his head, “As do I. That would be a very interesting experiment.”
He sighed. “Athena likes your plan, for what it’s worth.”
She grumbled but finally complied. Both ships went into jump, and Jax joined the others in the ship’s galley, which was about twice the size of the one on the Grace. “So, what did everyone find?”
Lyton announced, “We’ve got some handy-dandy tools for this mission.” He tossed a set of small pins on the rectangular metal table that most of them were seated around. The room reminded him of a high school cafeteria more than anything else. “They’re transponders, Intelligence Division transponders. If we deactivate ours and activate these, we should read as crew members on the base.”
Jax nodded. “Be sure to sock one of those away somewhere for Athena to examine after this is all over. They should allow us to use their weapons, too, which would be useful going forward.”
O’Leary asked, “You think there’s more to do once we take down this bastard?”
“I do. There’s bound to be some other scumbags in his division who have been enabling him who will step up. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to get most or all of them on this mission, but I’m not ready to count on it. So, let’s turn this into an intelligence operation as well as a ‘beat the hell out of Zavian Arlox’ operation.”
The others pounded on the table softly in agreement. Verrand asked, “So, what’s our plan, then?”
Jax looked at O’Leary, who nodded for him to continue. “Wasp and I have been talking it over, and there’s no way we can boil out of the ship and shoot everything in sight. We’ll get our asses handed to us if we try to do that. So, I’m going to have to go in alone first and find a way to make it possible for you all to get out.”
His team shook their heads doubtfully, and Marshall asked, “Really? Again?”
Jax laughed. “I get it, really, I do. But in this case, one person will look a lot less suspicious than a bunch of people. And I’m the one with the extra advantage.” He tapped his temple to indicate Athena. “I’m afraid I’m the logical choice. I mean, my long history of infiltration ops would’ve made me the choice anyway, but I have the best chance of success among the people in this group.”
There were grumbles, but no one could argue. O’Leary said, “So, we’ll get him all kitted up and looking like an intelligence division scumbag, then wait for things to kick off. When they do, we charge out and shoot our way through anyone between us and our target.”
Kimmel said, “Between Athena and I, we ought to be able to hack into their systems without a problem. That will at least give us the layout of the place, and ideally we can penetrate deep enough to get control of everything. The codes on the ship are more recent than the ones we had, although similar enough that we were able to crack them. We’ll use them as a starting point for the base and hopefully achieve a similar result.”
Athena, visible on one of the monitors, nodded her assent. “I recommend that we lock down the hangar first thing, so no one can use the ships inside to escape. If we accomplish that, there will be no need for any of you to stay with the ship. I can remotely run the sensors and weapons on this vessel no matter where I am and deny anyone who tries to get through.”
Jax nodded. “I’m in full agreement with this plan. One more serious word. I’d like us to do our best to avoid loss of life. I know that won’t be completely possible, but although these folks are currently our enemies, it’s only because their leader has guided them in the wrong direction. He needs to go down, but for everyone else, if wounding will take them out, then wound them. Don’t risk yourselves to do it, of course.” As many times as he said that to others, he tended not to follow that advice. Hopefully he, too, could avoid killing people unnecessarily. He finished, “Any questions?”
Venn raised her hand, and O’Leary chuckled. “Knock that junk off, Books. What?”
She grinned. “When this is all over, can we keep the ship? I think this would be a pretty nice ride.”
Everyone laughed, and O’Leary scowled at her subordinate. “I’ll tell you what, Axe, this one here has only gotten worse since you left.”
He shrugged. “It takes a special talent to keep the really smart ones in line. You probably don’t have the aptitude, but it’s okay. I’m sure you’ll be a fine captain anyway, once you’re done acting.”
More laughter rang out, and they broke up to get to work. The ship held all the navigational data needed to arrive at the system with the hidden base exactly as expected. Athena had pulled all the security recordings and used them to create avatar versions of the ship’s pilot and captain, and she impersonated them to negotiate their way in.
As they neared the facility, the scale of it became evident. It had seemed like an average size installation in the images, but it was probably half again that big. As the blast doors that secured the hangar slid open ahead of them, it was apparent that four ships the size of the one they were on would fit inside it. Already present were vessels that the computers identified as Confederacy, Snellar, and Krastow, the latter two aliens who weren’t aligned with the Coalition. He muttered, “So, more than one alien species is involved and sneaking around behind the Coalition’s back.”
Athena replied, “It appears Arlox has been up to even more nefarious work than we thought. I mean, one alien race, evil enough. But two? That’s piling on.”
Jax shook his head. That really wasn’t funny. You clearly don’t have an aptitude for humor and should probably quit trying.
She chuckled. “I found from watching humans that the key to humor is trying everything out and seeing what sticks. Often, the dumbest options are the ones that receive the most laughs. All of your jokes, for instance, fall into the categories of either ‘stupid’ or ‘unfunny.’”
No crew was present in the hangar. When they arrived, only one person was visible, up in a large transparent window on the tall space’s topmost level. Athena told the flight master that Quentin required a few more minutes to get ready and that an escort should be available outside the hangar for him. The ship’s crew would take him that far. Although it was likely an unexpected request, it met with no argument.
The ship’s schematics had revealed that the best option for Jax to exit the ship without being seen was through a bottom hatch, right near the landing gear. The huge strut would block sightlines from either side, and he could then do his best to step out and look like he belonged in the hangar. He dropped the few feet to the deck and crouched quietly to ensure no one had spotted him. The place looked new, still kind of shiny and unspoiled. He wondered idly how many places like this Arlox had created and how he’d paid for them all.
Athena noted, “I’ve added finding that out to our to-do list.”
He nodded. I don’t just want him. I want to take down his whole enterprise. I be
t Maarsen would agree. He wore his display glasses since they wouldn’t look out of place in a facility like this and followed the path she laid out on it. The uniform fit him well and was standard Intelligence Division issue, dark blue with maroon trim and black logos. He strode through the hangar as if he belonged and exited through a side door rather than the main portal that Arlox’s assistant would supposedly be taking. He made an immediate left and headed for the nearest security station.
Getting into the system far enough to get the layout had been easy. However, Athena was still having challenges getting to the deeper layer where security cameras and networks lay, as was Kimmel. Any time now, Athena.
She growled, “My first priority is making sure you can open the door with your biometrics or that I can override it. Getting you cameras is secondary.”
Easy for you to say. You’re not the one potentially walking into an ambush.
“I kind of am. Now quit whining. You’re annoying me.”
When he arrived at the security station, the door opened at his touch and revealed two technicians inside wearing uniforms identical to his. They both carried sidearms, as he did, and at the sight of him one turned toward him and went for his weapon, and the other reached for the control panel in front of him. Jax drew his stun pistol, an Intelligence Division version that was functional only because of the transponder attached to his borrowed outfit, and shot the one who was presumably reaching for an alarm.
He stepped forward and slapped the other one’s pistol out of line, then snapped the edge of his skin-covered hand into his throat as a distraction. A stun blast took him down as well, and Jax crossed to the control panel and slotted in a connector so Kimmel could have more direct access to the systems.